Low Carb Diet – The Way To Weight Loss?

Everybody you know is on the latest weight loss bandwagon: The
Low Carb Diet. They’ve seen the astounding results on the scale
and have lost 10+ pounds in a short period of time. So you want
to join in on this also?

Before You Start Take Time to Look at How the Body Works with
Carbs:

It is true that the weight that is lost starting out on the low
carb diet is a lot in a short period of time, but most of the
weight that is lost is water and carbs that are stored in your
body. Carbohydrates are stored in the muscles. Each gram of a
carbohydrate that is stored in the muscle is also stored with 3
grams of water. When you cut out carbohydrates your body uses
the stored carbohydrates in your muscles for fuel. As these
carbs are used up the water that is stored with them is taken
out also, so the result is weight loss at the beginning of a low
carb diet and some inches lost due to the depletion of
carbohydrate stores in your body. As the carbs and water leave
the muscles the muscles become depleted and loses volume.

Once carbs are added back into the diet the muscle take up these
carbs along with water, so if the carbs are reintroduced into
the diet in a couple days time the initial weight that was lost
will be regained.

Your brain requires carbs for energy also. The brain uses 400
calories a day just for the standard thought process of staying
alive. So this is 100 grams of carbs a day that is required for
one body function. Any movement that you do for longer than 3
minutes requires carbs to be used for energy.

When carbs become scarce your body goes into a state of ketosis,
that is the process of the body breaking down fat into ketones
for the brain to use as energy because not enough glucose is
available for the brain. The results of this can be loss in
energy, fatigue, irritability and a slower thought process. Thus
affecting your ability at work or school.

Eating Carbs But Not Gaining Weight:

You can eat carbs and not gain weight. It is in the choice of
carbohydrates that you consume that will make the difference.
Including more vegetables and whole grains in your diet and
eating less simple carbohydrates like sugars that are in soda,
candy, processed and refined foods will help you in losing
weight. Paying attention to portion sizes will also help. Pasta
is an easy trap for eating to much carbohydrates. If you like
pasta add vegetable to you dishes, since vegetables are good
carbs and have fiber in them they will help fill you up faster.
Eat a salad with every meal, but pay attention to what you put
on your salad, stick to low fat versions of dressings, like
Italian and Vinaigrettes. Creamy dressing when they are low fat
can be loaded with sugars to take place of the fat, so it is
important to pay attention to the nutritional values of
dressings.

Another way of using carbs in your body is weight training.
Weight Training requires your body to use carbs for the exercise
and to repair muscles after your workout. Finding a requirement
in the body for the carbs that you eat is a great way to use the
carbs that are consumed. By finding the requirement for use of
carbs you do not need to worry so much on how many carbs that
you consume but just the types of carbs. Always remember that no
matter what sugars in abundance are not good for your body or
your weight loss goals.

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